Improvement in portable battery or platoon guns



O. STAUP &C. J. STEINBAGH. PORTABLE BATTERY 0R PLATOON GUN.

No. 34,017, Patented Dec. 24, 1861.

'from two inches in thickness to any thickness UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

C. STAUF AND O. J. STEINBAOH, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN PORTABLE BATTERY OR PLATOON GUNS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,017, dated December24, 1861.

To all uhmrrit may concern:

Be it known that we, CONRAD STAUF and CRISTIAN JosEYF STEINBACH, of thecity of St. Louis, county of St. Louis, and State of Missouri, haveinvented a new and useful Im provement in Fire-Arms, called the PortableBattery, applicable to any description of fire-arms, from a pistol toacannon; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the construction and operation of the same,reference being bad to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which the battery and all its parts are shown, thediflerent parts being marked with the letters of the alphabet.

The following is a description of the battery or improvement. Itconsists of a cylinder, A,

desired and from two inches in diameter to anydiameter required,revolving horizontally. This cylinder may be pierced with seventy-fiveor more chambers, according to its thickness.

It may be loaded or charged as it revolves,

thus making it a perpetually-repeating gun.

Instead, of the chambered horizontal cylinder A l'evolvingon a verticalaxis, as shown, a chamber ed spherical breech of the same diameter maybe used, revolved upon a transverse or horizontal axis, or, as anobvious equivalent, two or more disk or annular c3 linders, A,intersecting each other at a transverse axis, in the manner of meridianlines, may be used, thereby greatly increasing the number of chargesheld by the battery. The charges are placed in this cylinder, and infront of it are the barrels, twenty-five or more in number, which arestationary, and arranged in a fanlike form, in the segment ofa circle,as seen at G in diagram. Each chamber in the cylinder corresponds withand comes opposite to a barrel at the moment of discharge. They arefired or discharged by means of the locks H. It may be fired as fast asit can be loaded, and as many as four hundred and eighty balls may befired in one minute. If the invention be applied to pistol or musketbarrels, the cylinder should be pierced for twelve balls. For a cannon,the improvement is placed upon four wheels, as in ordinary cases,

and by means of a gage-screw, G, it may be elevated or depressed .in amoment to any angle desired.

The improvement may also be placed below the axle, thus doubling thenumber of guns.

The guns may be fired either with percussion-caps or by means of amatch.

The entire improvement or part of it may be covered with sheetdron, sothat the men and 1 CONRAD STAUF. CRISTIAN JOSEYF STEINBACH.

Witnesses:

FEANcIs MINOR, Joan T. HOLMES.

